La Mesa, CA Ð Suite Software announced an Architecture Encapsulation Layer for SuiteDOME, its Distributed Object Management Environment, in late July. According to the company, any application developed using SuiteDOME can run on any platform, provided the other machine is also running SuiteDOME. Supported systems include NeXTSTEP, Sun Sparc, IBM RS/6000, HP/9000, OS/2, Windows, and VAX/VMS.
SuiteDOME's API (application program interface) can handle messaging, naming, security, and data access across environments. The SuiteDOME environment encapsulates node, process, application, user, environment variables, files, directories, a class for operating-system characteristics, and other features but does not support platform-specific development capabilities.
Included under the SuiteDOME umbrella are the object language SuiteTalk; a distributed-data-management system, SuiteDDM; and a developer's workbench. The distributed-object system was developed with the CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) standards from the Object Management Group (OMG) and could be NeXT's answer to OMG conformance, said Bernadette Middleton, area sales manager for Suite.
NeXTSTEP is the development platform for Suite and was chosen for its object-oriented graphical interface. "The engineers love it," said Middleton. Support for other platforms has been customer driven. Current users of SuiteDOME include the U.S. Navy's airlift division and companies in the steel and airline industries.
Suite Software can be reached at 619/698-7550.